IF people are actually interested in town centre development (beyond the usual 'obvious' but very stupid ideas of 'free parking' and 'reducing business rates') the LGA booklet 'Revitalising town centres: a handbook for council leadership' might make interesting reading.
It's downloadable here:-
https://www.local.gov.uk/revitalising-town-centres-handbook-council-leadership
FWIW I went on one of the LGA training days a couple of months ago and am booked into this:-
As someone who has attended our events or been interested in LGA work on town centre, you may be interested in an opportunity to learn from experts and from what others are doing to revitalise their town centres. We are working with Didobi Ltd and Partners on a ‘masterclass’ that will be spread over two days, with the first day taking place on 29th November 2018, in central London followed by the second date in the new year, on 17th January.
LGA training is absolutely free to member councils of which DDC is one, though I've never seen any other local councillors present. Perhaps they are too busy preparing press releases for the local rag to show how wonderful they are or having pre-Brexit meetings to prepare for things when they don't know what's going to happen, and whatever happens DDC can do bugger all about it!
(Incidentally I was talking to a local hotel manager and they are enjoying their best Autumn ever absolutely packed with public servants all on expenses paid for by you and me!)
Needless to say [U]I [/U]have paid and will pay my own expenses and not claim a penny from DDC.
Town centre development is complicated. If things were as simple as Mary Portas thought all High Streets everywhere would be thriving. Unfortunately unless you understand the problems people tend to come out with simplistic and populist bollocks.
